Armamentalist is an advanced vocation in IX, and is similar to both the mage and warrior. Their essential function is to buff the team and debuff the enemy. An armamentalist can wield wands, bows, swords and shields, while also weakening enemies with a variety of status effects (they only learn two buffs). However, none of their spells deal direct damage to foes (as is the case with the mage, sage and priest), and they aren't very good at directly damaging enemies along with having subpar defenses. One of their main selling points is the snazzy class outfits they receive. They have more MP than both the Warrior and Gladiator combined and are also faster than both, meaning if you want to play a (somewhat) physically strong class with enough MP to put out a lot of spells and abilities, the armamentalist is a great choice. With the proper skill sets learned from other jobs they become great all rounders, although this applies to most classes. Their Coup-de-Grace is "Voice of Experience," which increases the EXP payout after battle by a random multiplier (x1.1 - x1.9), which actually is among the better, if not best Coup-de-Graces in the game.

The Armamentalist's class-unique skill is the Fource. The Fource skill tree provides bonuses to health, defense, strength, and attack. You will also unlock different elemental Fources, (e.g., Fire Fource) that the Armamentalist can imbue themselves or other party members with, raising their attack and defense as well as allowing them to deal damage based on the corresponding element of the used Fource, which is very helpful for dealing with legacy bosses. Multiple can be used on a character at a time, and if the level 40 Class Quest for the Armamentalist is completed, the player receives an item that allows all party members to gain the effects of a selected Fource.

Windy at Alltrades Abbey says you must use the Fource of Mother Nature if you want to join the great fellowship of armamentalists. He wants you to erect a Wizard Ward before defeating two metal slimes in battle.

Hint for solution

Equip your mage party member with Poison needle, and weaken the slime with a Metal Slash, a sword skill, after you have casted Wizard Ward.

Trivia

Functionally the Armamentalist is identical to the Red Mage Job Class from the Final Fantasy series, being able to equip swords and shields and use magic at the cost of below average stats. The artwork of the male Armamentalist even wears an outfit near identical to the standard Red Mage outfit. You also need a quest in order to unlock the the Armamentalist.

The slick fencing coats of Armamentalists as well as the rapiers seen in the official artwork resemble the classic equipment of 17th and 18th century musketeers, which likely contributes a lot to their popularity as a class.

The name Armamentalist is a play on the words armament, meaning weapon or armor, and mentalist, describing a stage magician of some kind whose common performances include telepathy, mind-control or psychokinesis. It also sounds like the word elemental, referencing their use of the elements in their magic.